The Cordish Co., Simon Property and others are having a jobs and vendor fair Thursday for people who want to do business with Power Plant Entertainment, Casino Resorts Maryland. It's at Arundel Mills Mall, near the putative slots site. Problem: The county hasn't approved the project. The developers don't have a casino license.

Perhaps it's their attempt to push the process and show how much local dough will be spent and jobs created locally if the project goes forward. But the county councilmembers -- doing their best Hamlet, brows furrowed, hands wringing -- are unlikely to be impressed. They may be annoyed.

I asked Cordish spokeswoman Danielle Babcock whether the job fair might be premature, given the lack of approval by the county. She replied: "We expect approvals. We have received hundreds of calls from job seekers and potential vendors about the project. This is a Career & Vendor Information Expo to prepare local contractors, vendors and career candidates for the estimated 4,000 jobs anticipated."

Says the press release from Cordish et. al.:

(Baltimore, MD) – PPE Casino Resorts Maryland, LLC (“PPE MD”) announced its plans today to host a Career & Vendor Information Expo at Arundel Mills Mall in an effort to prepare local contractors, vendors and career candidates for the estimated 2,500 construction and 1,500 permanent jobs anticipated with the development of a world-class gaming facility at Arundel Mills Mall. The Expo will be held on Thursday, November 19, 2009 from 11am – 2pm in the Arundel Mills Mall food court.

Continue reading "Arundel casino developers: We're hiring, buying!" »

Posted by Jay Hancock at 6:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
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The pathetic lengths to which Magna Entertainment will go to obtain slots at Laurel Park just got longer. First Magna and boss Frank Stronach botched their bid for a license. They didn't put up the required $28.5 million in earnest money. Then they threw a fit after their bid was rejected, arguing that they didn't pay because the money wasn't refundable. Then they argued that, because the state was looking at changing the sites for some of the successful bidders, that was tantamount to reopening the process and they should be allowed reentry.

Now they're throwing partner Joe De Francis and his partners under the bus, hoping that their absence will let the state countenance Magna's bid. De Francis et. al. were supposed to get 65 percent of Laurel slots profits for the first five years and a diminishing amount over the next 15 years. De Francis personally would get 11.7 percent for the first five years, documents show -- millions. Magna is asking the bankruptcy court to terminate that deal.

One question: What took Magna so long? Bankruptcy is all about rejecting contracts. The profit-sharing contract with De Francis is at the tiptop of the list of binding deals that Magna regrets. Even if Magna doesn't get a license in this round, jettisoning De Francis would yield a theoretical greater share of slots profits for any future ventures. That makes Magna look look more valuable, which is what its creditors want. But for the owner of Pimlico and Laurel to get slots anytime soon is still a long, long shot.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
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"This symphony has a long way to go," I wrote six months ago about the desperate attempt by Laurel Racing, the Maryland Jockey Club and Magna Entertainment to ask for a do-over in their botched bid for a slots license. We're now up to -- oh -- the third movement. Molto lacrimoso.

The companies (or somebody. Maybe it's Joe DeFrancis and other partners who stand to make a mint if Laurel Park gets slots) are wasting more money on lawyers to try to get the state to reopen slots bidding. Their argument: Since the state is taking modified offers from qualifying bidders, it should start over and let everybody submit new packages.

Nice try. Here is the way to think about this. Imagine you're buying a house. It is customary to put up earnest money -- $1,000 or so. This demonstrates that you have at least a minimum amount of scratch, a small token of solvency implying that you can consummate your offer. That's when the negotiating begins. The seller makes a counteroffer, you reciprocate etc. Without the earnest money you don't even get to sit down at the table.

Laurel Racing and the Jockey Club didn't put up the earnest money. They were supposed to front $28.5 million for their bid. Now they're accusing the state of changing the slots award rules in the middle of the game. Actually, the rules were quite clear, and Laurel Racing didn't abide by them. There was reason to think that the entities that ran Pimlico and Magna into the ground would not be good bidders. When they failed to put up the bidding deposit, they proved that proposition correct. The system worked.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Slots
        

Magna Entertainment, owner of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park, got out the Stradivarius Friday for Maryland officials by announcing it had defaulted on a loan secured by the racetracks. That Magna Entertainment is near bankruptcy is not news. That it announced its loan defaults to PNC Bank only a day after it pleaded in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that its hilariously botched slots bid for Laurel be revived was no accident.

In more than an hour of impassioned monologue yesterday in Anne Arundel Circuit Court, [Magna lawyer Alan] Rifkin narrated a wide-ranging argument that suggested Maryland bureaucrats might be committing a "felony" if they were to refund fees, and he implored Judge William C. Mulford II to prevent "enormous harm" to Maryland horse racing by preserving Laurel's chances for slots.

Rifkin's rif was the overture. Magna's default announcement was the first movement. This symphony has a long way to go. Nothing any judge or slots commission can do can match the enormous harm already done to Maryland horse racing by Magna. Just file for Chapter 11, sell yourself to Churchill Downs and get it over with.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Slots